Saturday, May 19, 2012

Zipped bag for all those chargers

It’s been a long while since my last Blogger post.  Life gave me some twists and turns and changes.  I hope that I can come up with some things to share with you – I enjoy doing that.

On a recent trip, I realized that a light-weight zippered pouch/bag would be just the thing to keep all those chargers together.  You know – one for the cellphone, iPad, Kindle, camera, etc.  I had used an old pouch that I found in a drawer & knew that I could make a better one.

Why do pouches always have a zipper at the top?  I thought a zipper in the middle of the pouch/bag would make the contents more accessible.  And here’s what I came up with --

100_2142

 

100_2142aWhen I make pouches/bags, I like to encase the ends of the zipper in fabric tubes so then I don’t have to deal with zipper teeth or the heavy zipper tape in the seamlines of the bag.

 

100_2134Fabric Tubes for ends of zipper:
Cut each rectangle for tube 2-1/2” wide (this allows for 1/4” seam & goes around the zipper)
Length to cut – 2-1/4” is enough to allow for clearing ends of zipper tape and will be enough for a seam allowance of 5/8” on the bag.
So, for the Fabric Tubes on my zipper –-
I cut two rectangles -- 2-1/2” wide x 2-1/4” long

100_2134a Right sides together, stitch the ends of the fabric tube(s) in 1/4” seam, down the 2-1/4” length.  Do not turn right side out, yet.

 

100_2133a Slip the zipper end into the “unturned” Fabric Tube - that would be right side of zipper to right side of Fabric Tube.

 

100_2133Above pic shows the Fabric Tubes pinned to each end of zipper.

100_2133b

The orange dotted line shows the stitching line of the Fabric Tube to the zipper.

 

100_2135aAfter sewing Fabric Tubes in place, pull the Fabric Tube over the end of the zipper tape; the right side of Fabric Tube is now showing and the end of zipper tape is encased in the Fabric Tube – no raw edges showing. Press.
This would now be called a “Zipper Unit”.

100_2136Now you can take that Zipper Unit and sew it into the bag, treating it just like a zipper.

There are so many tutorials on the web for making pouches/bags, I’ll leave the rest of the construction up to you.  And most of them will show you how to insert a zipper and you would just follow those directions and insert a Zipper Unit, which is just a zipper with covered ends.  I just wanted to show you how I did my zippers.

Before the sides are sewn, the zipper can be located anywhere on the bag
Towards top/bottom.
At top/bottom
or, centered on bag front – which is what I did with mine.

100_2142a

I chose to use French Seams on the sides of the bag, with the final stitching of the French Seam on the outside of pouch/bag, so I could have something to hold on to when opening or closing the zipper. For the 1st stitching of the French Seam, I use 1/4” seam allowance and then for the 2nd stitching, I used a 3/8” seam allowance.  That way, I did not have to trim the 1st seam.

100_2144 Uh-oh, looks like there’s room in that pouch/bag!

1 comment:

Sunnie said...

Thanks for the Zipper Tute! It solves a number of problems.
Also I like the center placementment...the best designs come from *users*!